From the desk of Robert Gardner & Associates - Providing Vital Information. Two memos delivered. One grounded in public‑record findings, the other scrubbed and found clean. Yet both begged the same question: who was the company?
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In response to something I recently put on LinkedIn, fellow OSINT maven, Brian Willingham noted that Florida is an all you can eat buffet when it comes to public records. Damn, as a person known for his eating prowess and love for buffets, I kicked myself for not using that line first. Instead, I took several words to explain why we researchers love Florida. If Florida was the best state, someone asked, which one is the worst.
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As someone comfortably into my sixth decade on the planet, I often remind myself that I’m not too old to learn, to do better. To realize I did not have the answer when it came to finding a divorce file. If I’m still learning things, how can I expect the AI to know all these things.
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In which, yet again, I question the OSINT Tool
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In which I do my first book review while wait for Kelly Paxton to do another podcast on AI and research. See why I think you should read Five Families: The Rise, Decline and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires. Hint, it’s not just a good book.
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It’s been a while since I created a good blog post. Scanning my brain for topics, I started gravitating toward the idea, “state of OSINT” or what’s new for 2025. OSINT does not change much year to year, and I was not arriving at anything bloggable. The fact that the obvious answer did not come right to me, perhaps gives away the story. Let’s see.
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I made the promise that I would put up a post a week in 2024. Believe me, I can find 52 things to say. I do not, however, ever have 52 weeks of time to write. There are cases and clients and a whole host of other concerns some of you know about. Thus, the lofty goal of 52 was only 75% off, although I do have one pending post besides this for the year. I did put up 13 posts. Behold the lessons from the 13 posts to date.
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You only know you failed at due diligence when you have failed at due diligence. When you are faced unexpectedly with a criminal for an employee. When your computer tech turns out to be a North Korean spy (true story!). When your business partner has a track record of failures. As Wayne Gretzky might also say, you miss 100% of the things when you do not search.
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I’ve written about this before, as I put it way back in 2022, “It’s not what you find, it’s what you know when you find it.” I really should have said, It’s not what you find, it’s when you know you’ve found it. See, much of what happens in open-source research is pre-ordained. It just is. Yet, a lot what you really find, well, it depends.
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A good friend and colleague gave me some honest feedback on a recent blog post: write shorter pieces. Alas, I cannot help myself. I am in love with my Scooby Do references; the world of OSINT is never as simple as some would like it. Real estate searching is complicated and cumbersome and difficult for reasons I can enumerate at length. I was advised to make things shorter. Did I?
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It took me from May to nearly the end of August to write. In aiming to re-establish a more regular posting schedule, I am going back to the well. Cover something you should know and be searching, Uniform Commercial Code filings, aka the “UCC.” I provide some background on this UCC thing, and I provide reasons to know UCCs. In talking and understanding UCCs, we can also understand why you should not search from a list.
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When we last met, the summer solstice had not happened. No presidential candidate had been shot. I too, have been busy period since that May 14 post. In the spirit of getting something, anything, back into the Opensouceresearchsphere, I’m going to address a frequent gripe: every name is common.
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When we last spoke, I defended my lack of blogging in the guise of productivity help. As much as I want to make a second career as a productivity guru, I need a few more streaks under my belt before hanging out my Life Coach shingle. I do, however, know a lot about open-source intelligence, online research, and the realm of public records. To that end, I have two mini posts for you in the spirit of catching up.
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You come here to learn to be an open-source researcher. To peak behind the vital information curtain. Just the other day I sent out an email giving advice to someone on how he could DIY an asset search. I said, I have no secrets. I have nothing to hide here. If I practiced as much productivity as I know about productivity, this particular blog post would be about gathering intelligence, searching online, or this wine guy. Instead, it is about getting things done.
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The prompt for this blog, like the prompt for some other blogs, came from Steve Mason, a well-educated and resourceful investigator in Arizona. He put on his LinkedIn the other day, that he opened his 1,500th case. Not only was it a good excuse to brag about his record, but he also used it as an opportunity to share lessons learned in going from one to one thousand and five hundred. It got me thinking that I don’t have a good case count of my own anymore. And I never need excuses for a few lessons of my own.
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A tendency lingers in OSINT to think it’s about finding the thrilling and the hidden, when the reality is, it’s about finding the obvious and the mundane. Master the basics by reading some journalism texts and go from there.
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As you grow as an OSINT professional, you need to become adept at four things: 1) know how to scope, and what you need to find, 2) know where to look, 3) know how to look, and 4) know how to make sense of what you find.
Have you made any resolutions to get better in these areas? Please share.
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Did you notice that I promised to put up a blog post every week in 2024? As I already missed a week, I’m making up for it by posting twice this week.
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In my penultimate blog post of 2023, I pined for best years ever, noting 2023 wasn’t one of them for me. I will say that regardless of my personal travails, 2023 was a glorious year for open-source researchers, and 2024 could become our best year ever. Just look at how things used to be and how they are today. Still, as good as we have it, I’ll also tell you that it used to be better.
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I put nine posts on my website in 2023. Really, eight posts and one post announcing an extended hiatus. I’ve re-capped the year’s post for you.
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